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Tlaib Won't Go to West Bank Despite Israeli Permit

Rep. Rashida Tlaib says she will not go to the West Bank despite Israel granting her a permit based on humanitarian grounds because of "oppressive" conditions Israel placed on her visit. (Published Friday, Aug. 16, 2019)

Rep. Rashida Tlaib's grandmother says she does not understand what all the hubbub is about — why can't her granddaughter, an important person in America, stop by for a visit?

"It's been a long time since I've seen her — five to six years. But sometimes I see her on TV and talk with her on the phone," said Muftia Tlaib as she sat in the family's sun-washed garden in territory Israel has occupied since 1967. "Why didn’t they allow her to come here?"

On Friday, Rashida Tlaib announced she was canceling a visit to this small village, just hours after Israel changing its tune by granting the Michigan Democrat permission to go.

"I can’t do anything. I’m really very sad," her grandmother, who is in her 80s, told NBC News on Saturday. "I hope, inshallah, that she will come back. I’m waiting for her."